Indian Point, DEC fight over fish

BUCHANAN — Indian Point is opposing a state Department of Environmental Conservation proposal that it shut down for up to 92 days between May and August each year to protect Hudson River fish.

Michael Randall

BUCHANAN — Indian Point is opposing a state Department of Environmental Conservation proposal that it shut down for up to 92 days between May and August each year to protect Hudson River fish.

The debate comes as Indian Point is continuing to seek a 20-year extension of its license. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has opposed extension of the license.

In a fact sheet posted on its Web site on what it calls “seasonal protective outages,” the DEC says the shutdowns are “an effective method” of minimizing the number of Hudson River fish killed by drawing water from the river to cool the nuclear power plants.

The DEC has estimated that 1.2 billion fish a year are pulled through the operating plant and killed and almost 670,000 fish are “impinged” on screens at the water intake where they are severely stressed and then suffocated.

The agency said shutting down the full 92 days could exceed the reduction in fish mortality that could be achieved by retrofitting both Indian Point units with closed-cycle cooling systems.

But in testimony at a hearing on Tuesday, Fred Dacimo, vice presienti of license renewal for Entergy Nuclear Operations, which runs Indian Point, called the shutdown proposal “a terrible idea for Indian Point, New Yorkers and our environment.”

Indian Point produces about 25 percent of the power consumed by New York City and the lower Hudson Valley. Dacimo said replacing that power, at a time of year when it's in high demand, would require using power created by burning fossil fuels, and it would be more expensive. It also would create a higher likelihood of blackouts or brownouts.

But Riverkeeper, which supports the idea of the shutdowns, disputes that conclusion.

Phillip Musegaas, Riverkeeper's Hudson River program director, said the prospect of more blackouts or other power grid problems “is simply not the case.”

He said Entergy's opposition is prompted by “the economic impact” the shutdown would have on them at a time when its product is in high demand.

Musegaas said Riverkeeper favors the shutdown only as “a backup alternative” to its preferred option, retrofitting the plants with cooling towers, which would “virtually eliminate the impact on the river” of drawing water from it to cool the plants.

Entergy spokeswoman Patricia Kakridas said it could take 15 years to get through the approval process for the cooling towers and then build them.

Entergy is instead proposing a more sophisticated screening system called Wedgewire be used on its intake valves to reduce the number of fish, fish eggs and larvae drawn into the cooling system.

The plant draws 2.5 billion gallons of water from the Hudson River each day. After using it to cool equipment, the water is discharged back into the Hudson, although at a slightly higher temperature.